The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/11430
Darryl: I agree, and you know, a CIO thinks very differently from lawyers. He might have a staff of 40 people, yet be surrounded by 1,000 lawyers who absolutely do not think the way he does. So it’s always a challenge for him to try to see things from the perspective of the lawyers and what’s best for the firm, yet remain true to what he knows in his technology field. But CIOs need to be a client advocate. Whether a firm opens an office in Singapore, changes a billing procedure or does anything in a new or different way, it is always driven by a client request or demand. In the past, I think the first level CIO, siloed to support lawyers, concentrated almost exclusively on operational matters like keeping the firm safe and secure and leveraging info inside the firm. But over the past few years this has started to broaden to leveraging information about the clients through CRMs, financial data, etc., so we can learn more about them. Going forward, a CIO must think of himself as a client advocate, linking firm and client systems together to make things as transparent as reasonably possible. That’s when things like extranets, social networking, deal rooms and ways for clients to have direct input about billing in real time will be commonplace. When you combine lawyer expertise and information we’ve used before, the client benefits, and the firm benefits. So when the CIO goes in to make a pitch for budgets, more people or which software platforms to invest in and starts by saying “This will help our clients save more money and therefore send more work to us,” a statement that’s hard to rebut, the future CIO will be in a great position. You asked what kind of skills this future CIO will need. Well, more than many have today, including more creativity with technology and greater willingness to leverage it for the good of the firm and clients. We’re talking about lots of changes — what are the drivers of these changes? Sally: The impetus will come from customers for legal services. And to the extent that one of today’s trends is for law departments to bring more work in-house and delegate less to outside service providers, law firms are increasingly under pressure to pursue a decreasing volume of business, which is going to drive some changes into the organization. The law department as a consumer of legal services is fundamentally a business. Traditionally, it has been exempt from many of the corporate practices such as cost control and outside supplier use, in part because general counsels and the lawyers in law departments who came from law firms brought that mentality into the corporate environment. But in the next 10 years, you’re likely to see the general counsel emerge as a businessman who buys outside services from law firms in designated areas, bringing the corporate disciplines to their supplier law firms in order to satisfy internal corporate dictates and mandates for effective management of costs and management of outcomes. 22 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer What challenges do you think will impact the strategic plans that support the business? Sally: Two things we touched on briefly: increasing competition for a shrinking volume of work and the change in client expectations. Firms are also going to have to shape themselves in order to attract and retain talent because again, in the business or corporate model, individuals with both legal and business management experience and skills will be needed. With the advent of matter management tools and their increasingly advanced capabilities of budgeting, estimating and managing effective client communications, we could come to the point, whether it’s 2020 or later, where we view the law firm as an extension of the law department. Is it fair to say technology will be a key enabler of that linkage between the law firm and the law department? Sally: Quite right. In the supply chain economic model, a law department would be able to reach out “just in time” — just as a legal question arises. It would be able to quickly choose a supplier that provides the service it needs, immediately retain that supplier through electronic linkage, and obtain the advice needed via a document or knowledge management system. These changes are bound to impact the traditional culture in law firms here and abroad, don’t you think? Sally: Yes, and I can see two ways in particular. First, in the corporate model, I think there will be a much greater respect and integration for professionals who bring non-legal business skills to the table. In Germany, France and other E.U. countries other than the U.K., lawyers are viewed very much like plumbers — that is, professionals with specialized skills, not superstars. That kind of thinking in the States would drive a very different culture. Second, whether we go to the corporate model or not, I predict that generational torch passing — Baby Boomers to Gen Xers and then to Millennials — will definitely force change in the culture of law firms because each generation brings, and will continue to bring to the workplace, its own unique characteristics. Gen Xers, for example, are more concerned with work-life balance than previous generations. Darryl: I agree. And you know, when we talk to firms, clients and law students, they know changes are coming but not what those changes will be or how they’ll be affected, so they’re all over the map with ideas. Some say law firms will get bigger, some say smaller, some say firms will outsource, and some see the end of the traditional associate department model. Lots of different perspectives, but the common thread is a sense of discomfort. What is the source of that discomfort? Darryl: I think discomfort arises from the fact that the legal